Monday, January 01, 2007

Non-heavy metal umlaut

Lots has been made about 'heavy metal umlaut' -- see the wikipedia entry on the topic for a laugh, if you don't know that one already. But the Capital One Bowl, where Wisconsin is playing Arkansas right now*, the sponsor just had a medieval-themed ad where a sign shown in passing had 'bänk' on it for a financial institution. The guys in the ad mostly have UK-type accents, and this is the series where they get portrayed as being Vikings (or similar roving bands). Seems like reaching to imagine this is supposed to represent, say, Swedish orthography.

Are we seeing the rise of 'medieval umlaut'?

*Update, 3:36: Wisconsin wins, 17-14.

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